Author of the post. We did not distinguish by experience level in the question that we asked about tech / product. But experience is VERY helpful in a job search, so an experienced ML/AI person would almost certainly have more interest than a product person fresh out of school. We've not seen much weight given to CS PhDs. Someone fresh out of a CS PhD program is viewed much like someone out of a BS program. Industry experience is a big help.
Hmm, I think you may find different responses based on experience level with something like ML in particular. I'm a product focused engineer (former PM) with a master's degree and an unfinished PhD in machine learning. I've also been a mentor at a 12-week boot camp where students did machine learning projects, so I totally get the "it's sexy but nobody actually bothers to understand it" argument. But with my experience level (several years real world experience and a Big Name) I think I've had more interest due to my specific background, not less.
